PQ MNA vigorously denies Mafia ties after inquiry testimony

QUEBEC - A Parti Quebecois legislator vigorously defended his reputation Friday after the name of his construction company came up during testimony at the province's corruption inquiry.

A business owned by provincial MNA Andre Villeneuve was among 74 construction companies named the previous day, as an officer testified that police took down licence plates of vehicles parked outside a Mafia hangout.

It was at that Montreal coffee shop that construction businessmen were seen on old surveillance videos handing cash to senior-level mobsters, or milling about at a Rizzuto family Christmas get-together.

The inquiry has heard that construction costs are driven up in Quebec by a bid-rigging cartel, where the Mafia claims a percentage on certain projects.

Villeneuve's flooring company — Plancher Mirage Andre Villeneuve — was on the list of firms tied to vehicles spotted at the Rizzuto family hangout in a suburban strip mall.

He held a news conference Friday where he expressed shocked and said he was "devastated" to see his name associated to the notorious Cafe Consenza.

"I have no ties to the Mafia whatsoever and I've never set foot at the Consenza in my life," said the legislator, whose riding comprises a semi-rural area northeast of Montreal.

"There are plenty of possible explanations but let's not forget that they're talking about a public parking lot. There are businesses around and (the police) were photographing vehicles parked there. It's pretty strange, let me tell you."

The strip mall in question has more than a half-dozen other businesses including a supermarket, a pharmacy and a bakery. The well-known Mob hangout closed several years ago.

Villeneuve said he would have had no reason to associate with any big, bid-rigging construction companies.

He said his flooring company performed private and residential work. In 2004, in the midst of the four-year anti-Mafia surveillance operation, Villeneuve said he had revenues of only $250,000.

Villeneuve said his company had four employees — himself included — and each had a different registered vehicle.

He is demanding to know more from the commission, such as what licence plate number was spotted outside the business.

He suggested it was irresponsible for an inquiry employee, a Montreal police officer working for the commission, to publish a list of company names without providing any supporting details.

Villeneuve was first elected in 2008.

His case is only the latest evidence of the sweeping scope of allegations gushing out from Quebec's corruption inquiry, which has barely even begun.

From a list of 21 construction companies that received more than $1 billion in public contracts from the City of Montreal alone in the last half-decade, which was published in a 2011 report by the city's auditor general, roughly half have either been named at the inquiry this week or have been tied to criminal fraud charges.

The potential scale of the impact on the construction industry, and on the political world, is difficult to predict.

The inquiry has just begun exploring construction ties to the Mafia and has not even started digging into the industry's ties to illegal political party financing.